by R. A. Rock
They walked past the three boulders and entered the denser forest that lined the edge of the Courtyard. Even though it was growing within the castle walls, there was no doubt that this was a forest. The deeper woods were shadowy and cooler than the rest of the Courtyard. Finn shivered involuntarily.
“So, what?” Nat said, rubbing her arms as if she were cold. “Do we just wander around until I find the Vitan tree?”
“I guess so,” Tess said with a shrug. “Neither Finn nor I have ever seen one and we can’t chance getting it wrong.”
Tess and Finn followed Nat as she meandered through the woods. The small woman suddenly stopped.
“Nat?” Tess said, her voice worried. “Are you all right?”
The elf didn’t answer for a second and, when she spoke, her voice seemed to come from far away.
“Yes, I’m fine. I can feel it.”
“You can?”
“Yes, it’s like a humming in my bones,” Nat said, veering suddenly and starting to try to get through a dense thicket of shrubs that grew up into the canopy of the trees. She ripped and pulled at the bushes, but the more she fought with the plant, the stronger it seemed to get.
“Hey, hey,” Finn said, pulling his knife. “Stop, Nat.”
Nat turned toward him, her eyes looking a little desperate. “It’s just been so long,” she said. “It’s calling to me.”
Tess twisted her ring and tried to walk through. As soon as she touched one of the leaves, it was like she hit a stone wall.
"The rings won't work," she said. "The hedge must be warded against that sort of magic."
“Right, let me cut it for you, then,” Finn said, slashing at the hedge. Once again, the bushes seemed to fight him and regrow before their very eyes. He inspected the knife. “It's completely dull.”
“Izzie thought there’d be guards,” Tess said. “Guess not. Because it doesn’t need any. This hedge spell is enough to stop anyone.”
“What are we going to do?” Nat said. “We need to get in.”
She sounded desolate. As though she were an orphan who had just found her mother again, only to lose her immediately.
“I might have something,” Finn said, searching through his satchel. He pulled out a small stone.
“Is that a slow stone, like the one you used on me when we fought?” Tess said.
“Exactly,” he said. “It should stop the plant from regrowing so fast.”
“Giving us time to get through the hole you cut,” Nat said, grinning at him. “You’re more than just a pretty face, Finn.” He winked at her. Then he tossed the stone into the bushes. It landed on the ground right next to the hedge.
"Here, you'll need this," Tess said, handing him her own knife because his was now too dull to cut anything.
Finn took the knife and strode forward, cutting a large hole as quickly as he could.
“Quick,” he said. “Go.”
Nat dove through first. Then Tess climbed through.
Finn got halfway through when he felt the plant slowly closing in on him.
“Help, Tess,” he said, groaning as one of the branches pierced his arm.
Tess and Nat looked back in alarm and came running. They pulled on his arms and dragged him out. Finn looked back at the opening he had created, watching it close before his very eyes, the hedges knitting themselves back together.
The three of them gazed at each other in consternation. Finn was holding his hand on his arm where it was bleeding profusely from where the branch had skewered him. Tess and Nat were both badly scratched too. Tess tore off a strip of her shirt and tied it tightly around the wound.
“Um, I guess we’ll have to make a new opening when we leave,” he said, handing the knife back.
“No kidding,” Tess said as she slid the knife into it’s sheath.
Then they both looked at Nat, who was running away from them toward an enormous tree.
“Come on,” she said, sounding ecstatic. Finn and Tess broke into a jog to catch up to her. When they got to her, she was prying off a small piece of bark. She popped it in her mouth and moaned in pleasure.
“I take it that this is it?” Finn said dryly.
The elf was beside herself, chewing with her eyes closed. Nat just nodded.
“Good.” He looked around. “Then, three trees, with the north-facing one being the Vitan tree. And the knot we need in the western one is…” He walked over to the tree in question and peered at it until he spotted the knot. “Here.”
“Great.”
“Then we need the branch on the eastern one.” He crossed the clearing and located the stubby broken branch. “And that’s here.” His voice was triumphant. “We’re ready.”
The two women smiled excitedly at each other.
“Nat, you stand at the knot, and Tess, you’re going to pull the branch lever.”
Tess was staring down in discontent at Izzie’s incomprehensible scratches. Then she gave up and looked up at Finn.
“What are you going to do, Finn?”
He pulled a small vial of Elixir. “This goes on the Vitan tree in this.” He gestured at a knot.
“What’s that?” Tessa asked.
“The knot has a horn in it. I have to pour Elixir into the horn and that’s what starts the spell to open the entrance.”
“How in the name of Severance did Izzie know all this?”
“Remember he mentioned that someone paid him to find out this information not long ago?”
“Right. But you didn’t pay him anything for it, did you?” Tess frowned.
Finn shook his head. “Nah, Izzie feels really bad about almost killing me.”
“He almost killed you?” Nat said, surprised. She seemed to still be chewing on the bark of the Vitan tree.
Nat was an elf and, though all the elves had disappeared except for a few lone ones, there were still a few facts that were known about them. One, they each had a kind of power. Two, they needed the Vitan trees somehow. Three, they got their magical powers from the trees.
Finn wasn’t exactly sure, but he wondered how much juice Nat was getting from chewing on that piece of bark. He didn’t know her very well but she seemed radiantly happy to have found one of her elf trees. He was glad they had been able to give her access to one.
“It was by accident that he almost killed me,” Finn explained. “He’s actually a really good man.”
“Did you or did you not pay him?” Tess demanded.
“I said no. I didn’t pay him for the info, Tess.”
“Good,” Tess said, satisfied.
“Now, you two are going to push the knob and pull the lever and I’m going to pour the Elixir into the horn all at the same time.”
“This is complicated,” Nat commented.
“The King wasn’t messing around,” Finn said. “He didn’t want anyone finding the crown—least of all the queen.”
“All right, then,” Tess said. “Enough talk. Let’s do this.”
“I’ll count down so that we all do it at the same time,” Finn said. “I’ll say, three, two, one, go. And we’ll all do our part when I say go.”
“Got it,” Tess said and Nat nodded, her jaws still working as she chewed the bark.
Finn took the cork out of the bottle and then counted down. When he said go, Tess pressed hard on the knob, Nat pulled on the branch lever, and Finn poured the Elixir into the horn in the knothole. They waited a moment, breathless, and then things began to happen.
The wind picked up and Finn stared up at the treetops that whipped back and forth like an unseen hand was shaking them. He had a strange tingly feeling all over. There was a grinding sound and the ground split in the middle of the clearing, tearing the grass apart. A stone began to slowly rise out of the earth, dirt pouring off of it. The trees and bushes surrounding the clearing seemed to weave themselves together into a circle, creating a round barrier around the clearing with the stone in the center. Magic light shone from the rock.
This was it. Th
ey were getting in.
They were going to get the crown, read the Scroll, and end the Severance. And it all started here. Right now.
Chapter 20
After a minute, things quieted down, the magical wind died, and the stone stopped moving. Nat, Tess, and Finn exchanged glances.
“Now what?” Nat said, peering at the stone that had risen into the clearing.
“There’s supposed to be an opening,” Finn said, puzzled.
They all wandered the clearing, searching.
No opening of any kind.
“Something went wrong,” Tess said, walking over to inspect the stone. She looked at the holes in the rock. They were in a pattern that seemed familiar somehow to her. “Hey, look at this.”
Nat and Finn came over and squinted at the stone. Nat ran her hand over it.
“It’s some sort of pattern,” she said, tilting her head and contemplating.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Tess said, tapping her finger in each of the pinhole-sized dots. “Wait a second.”
She ran to the nearest tree that had the lowest branches and jumped, grabbing ahold of the bottommost one. She swung her legs up and pulled until she was sitting. Then she nimbly climbed up the tree. When she was high enough, she wrapped her legs around the branch to anchor herself and gazed down at the stone.
“What are you doing?” Finn said, tipping his head back so he could see her.
“Getting a better view,” she said, staring at the rock. “I know there’s a pattern.”
She stayed there for a while longer.
“I’m sure I recognize the pattern. I just need to think about it for a while.”
Nat and Finn were patient for a few minutes but after a while, Finn called up to her.
"Stars above, Tess. Come down. We're not going to solve this with you perched in a tree like a bird." He glanced over at Nat. "Or an elf."
Nat chuckled.
"Stars above," Tess repeated as the answer hit her. "That's it."
"What's it?" Finn asked.
"Stars above." She looked up at the sky, that she could see from the tree, though it wasn't visible from the ground. The faint light of morning was stealing in, but the sky was still dark enough to make out the stars. And the Wanderer constellation was nearly in position.
"What are you talking about, Tess?" Nat said, craning her neck to look up at her.
“It’s the pattern from the stones. It matches the Wanderer constellation," she said, climbing quickly back down to the ground. "When the Starlight falls onto the stone, it will open. It’s the missing piece. I know it."
Finn grinned. “You’re brilliant.”
"The answer was right there in the stars." Tess gave a small shrug.
"From whence all answers come," Finn said, giving her a hug.
Chapter 21
“It’s almost time,” Tess said, though he wasn’t sure how she could tell. Maybe she was guessing? Then, as if she read his mind she spoke. “I just know, Finn. It must be the Keeper’s memories integrating with my own, like you said.”
Suddenly, the dots on the stone lit up with a blue light, reflecting the stars above them.
“It’s working,” Tess said, her eyes wide.
The magic light got brighter and brighter until Finn had to put his hand up to shield his eyes. Again, they heard the scraping and grinding of stone on stone. Before their eyes, the boulder split into pieces and each piece dropped lower and lower until a set of stairs led down into the ground.
When the clearing was quiet and still again, they exchanged glances.
“Nat, you should get out of here. Thank you so much.” She gave her friend a hug.
“You’re welcome. It was worth it to get this,” she said, holding up a handful of Vitan bark pieces.
Then Tess pulled her knife and handed it to the elf.
“You’ll need this to get out.”
Nat gave a sharp nod.
“May the Stars guide you, Tess. And you too Finn,” she said. “Be careful.”
“We will,” Tess said, then she turned to Finn. “Ready?”
In point of fact, he felt anything but ready. The entrance looked exactly like a crypt. He could imagine it leading down into Demura, the hell realm, and Finn had no desire to go down there. Not that he had any choice.
"Let's go." Tess pulled her flaming sword and led the way down the stairs into the dark.
Her boots clicked on the stone. She tossed a luminescence orb above and ahead of her and spoke the words that would make it precede them, providing light wherever they went.
These wyrm tunnels looked exactly the same as the other ones. The only difference was that these ones had been blocked off from the others and this entrance was the only way to get in. Also, at the bottom of these tunnels, deep in the ground, the crown was buried in a chest.
Now all they had to do was find it.
Finn had the map Perdira had given them and they consulted it frequently, following the tunnels down. It got colder and, when Tess brushed against the cave walls, her hand came away wet with condensation.
“Uh, what are we going to do if we meet the wyrm?” Finn said, his eyes darting this way and that and his head swiveling as if he was trying to catch sight of the beast.
The question had been the only thing on Tessa’s mind the whole way down.
“I don’t know,” Tess said, wincing. “Run?”
“This does not seem like a good plan,” Finn commented.
Tess laughed. “It’s the worst,” she said. “If you’ve got anything better, I’m listening.”
“I’ve got nothing,” Finn said, holding up his hands in surrender. “It’s just that after Ransetta’s guards got killed, I’m even more wary of that ghost wyrm than before.”
“And you were pretty freaked out before,” Tess pointed out.
“Exactly,” Finn said. “I just don’t want to die. Is that too much to ask?”
“Not at all,” Tess said in a reasonable tone. “And we won’t be able to end the Severance if we’re dead, so we have to survive. Let’s just hope we don’t meet it.”
They continued deeper into the wyrm’s lair until Tess started to feel suffocated. This was awful. She really didn’t like being this far underground. But they needed that crown. And ending the Severance was more important than her comfort or discomfort.
It smelled like damp and mildew, which made her mildly nauseated after drinking way too much Elixir and sleeping way too little last night.
“What’s that?” Finn said, pointing to what looked like a small cave to the side of the tunnel. They could see the back of it. It wasn’t deep at all. Tess consulted the map.
“Just a dead end. There’s lots of them all over.”
“Oh, right,” Finn said, remembering. “Iz told me all about the wyrm. He said that sometimes the beast would start a tunnel and then inexplicably change his mind, leaving those little caves the size of an alcove or a closet.”
Tess nodded, not really caring about the wyrm’s habits or motives for building the tunnels. All she wanted to do was get that Shadows-cursed chest and get out of here.
She checked the map and saw that they should almost be there. Finn looked too and gave a nod. As they made the last turn, they came to an ornate gold doorway that led into a large room which also seemed to be entirely painted in gold.
Tess was relieved. It was almost over.
Though she couldn’t help thinking that it seemed kind of easy. Too easy.
That was when she heard the voice.
“Whosoever enters this chamber shall never emerge,” the voice intoned. “Come no further unless you wish to die.”
Shadows and Chasm.
The rumors about the guardian were true.
Tess had a feeling that things were about to get a lot more difficult.
Chapter 22
“Oh, this is bad,” Finn whispered.
“Yep, bad,” Tess agreed. “It’s way too early in the day for this.”
>
The woman stepped out of the golden room into the wyrm tunnel, sword in one hand, dagger in the other. She was stocky and had black hair worn in the simple braid of a woman who wasn’t much interested in how she looked. Her green eyes, which were lovely and ancient, somehow didn’t match the rest of her. Tess supposed it was because she was an ancient guardian Fae.
“You shall not enter,” she told them and, when she spoke, there was something about her that confused Tessa.
“Look,” Finn said, holding up his hands. “We don’t want any trouble.”
He jumped back, though, when she swung the sword and nearly slashed his arm.
“Hey,” he said, pulling his own sword.
The guardian smiled when she saw the sword glinting in the light of the luminescence orb above it.
“Bring it on,” she said, whipping her sword around and ending in a fighting stance.
Finn swiped a cross strike at the guardian that would have cut her throat if she hadn’t jumped back with cat-like agility. He pressed his advantage, slicing and dodging her swipes at him. Finn got in under her guard and was about to hit her when she elbowed him in the mouth.
Finn twisted away from her and stopped fighting, breathing hard and wiping his lip where it was bleeding from her strike with the handle of the dagger.
"What the Chasm? How am I bleeding?"
What the Chasm was right. Why wasn't the Truce spell protecting Finn?
The guardian attacked again and he parried, driving the woman down the hall.
Tess watched them fighting with a frown on her face. Something about this guardian wasn’t quite right. Tess couldn’t put her finger on it but maybe it was the way she moved or her voice.
They fought back toward her and she analyzed the woman’s movements. It all felt so familiar somehow.
Who was this guardian?
“Stop,” Tess said loudly over the clash of the blades. The guardian stepped back, keeping her weapons at the ready. Finn also kept his sword in a fighting position. “You can’t hurt each other because of the Truce spell. What's even the point of fighting?”
